Research and Narratives
Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York (UK)
9-11 September 2009
This international conference will launch an important new journal: the Journal of
Human Rights Practice. It is hosted by the Centre for Applied Human Rights,
University of York (UK), and Oxford University Press, in collaboration with Amnesty
International, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and Panos
London.
The conference will bring together academics, practitioners and artists to explore
ethical concerns surrounding the use of testimony. Human rights research has grown
exponentially in the academy over the past decade in a range of disciplines (law,
politics, anthropology, literature). Cultural output ranging from child soldier
autobiographies to documentary films about transitional justice is similarly prominent.
Practitioner research has had to adapt to its own forms of expansion (growing
interest in social, economic and cultural rights; use of new media such as the
internet). The use and study of testimony have been driving forces behind these
developments. But the ethical implications of the rise of testimonial work, particularly
in the global media age, remain under-explored.
The aims of this event are to investigate what responsibility researchers, practitioners
and artists have to the stories they use, and to disseminate best ethical practice.
Conference fee: £70 waged; £30 unwaged/student
Film festival: £5 – tickets available direct from City Screen, York
For further details please see http://www.york.ac.uk/inst/cahr/Events/Index.htm - or
contact Judith Pink, at jkp2@york.ac.uk
9 September, film festival at City Screen Cinema, York (5.45-8.45pm)
Film makers in attendance will include:
Sam Gregory, from WITNESS
Refik Hodzic, director of Justice Unseen
Cahal McLaughlin
Rose McCausland, from Living Lens
10-11 September, conference programme
Panel 1: Contested Lives: Perspectives on A Long Way Gone (Ishmael Beah)
and Child Soldier Narratives
- Neil Boothby, (Director, Forced Migration and Health Program, Columbia
University)
- Jo Mac Veigh (Save the Children) tbc
- Krijn Peters (Development Studies, University of Swansea)
Panel 2: Managing Complex Identities
- Ron Dudai (Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, UK),
Rescuers and Informers - Carina Tertsakian (human rights researcher and author of ‘Le Chateau: the
lives of prisoners in Rwanda’), Perpetrator-Victims
Panel 3: Transition and Testimony
- Eduardo González Cueva (International Center for Transitional Justice),
Silence as Recognition: the Victim Hearings of the Peruvian Truth and
Reconciliation Commission
- Amy Hill (Center for Digital Storytelling), Tracing Legacies of Violence through
Participatory Media in South Africa
- Refik Hodzic (International Liaison Office, International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia, Sarajevo, and Co-Founder, XY Films), Visual Ethics
and Documentary Filmmaking in Post-Conflict Societies (title tbc)
Panel 4: Testimony and Advocacy
- Rose McCausland (Living Lens), Unlikely Partnerships: Trafficked Women
and the Metropolitan Police in the UK
Panel 5: Sites of Storytelling
- Film: Cahal McLaughlin (documentary film maker, University of Ulster)
- Landscapes, Memorials and Museums: Paul Basu (Institute of Archaeology,
University College London)
- Truth commissions: Lee Maracle (Canadian Aboriginal scholar and activist,
University of Toronto)
Session 6: Discussion Groups
Discussion Group 1: Informed Consent
- Sam Gregory (WITNESS)
- Danna Ingleton (Amnesty International)
Discussion Group 2: Organisational Ethical Policies
- Ian Gorvin (Senior Program Officer, Human Rights Watch)
Panel 7: Reflections and Future Directions
- Harsh Mander (Centre for Equity Studies, Delhi)
- Eileen Pittaway (Centre for Refugee Studies, University of NSW, Australia)
- Carlos Reyes (photojournalist and former Amnesty International prisoner of
conscience)